1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cable housing. More specifically, the present invention relates to a cable housing including a pivoting latch arrangement.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cable housings arranged to connect optical or electrical cables to receiving receptacles are well known in the art. In such arrangements, it is necessary to releasably connect the cable housings to the receiving receptacles in a manner that is both firm and secure. Conventional arrangements that have been tried in the art include cable housings which include latches arranged to slide in and out of receiving notches on the receiving receptacle. Such latches typically include actuators with a pull tab that moves the latch such that the latch will slide in and out of the notches on the receiving receptacle and screws, rivets, and/or other fasteners arranged to fix the latches to the cable housing in a manner that permits the latch to move in relation to the cable housing. Such latches can be made of thin flexible metal members, insert molded members including flexible metal members embedded within a resin or plastic material, or any other desirable strong but flexible material.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,281,937 and 7,736,171 show examples of conventional cable housings. In such conventional cable housings, latches include a locking portion defined by a stiff member that is arranged to be inserted into notches in a receiving receptacle, a spring that flexes and springs back, and an actuator portion with a pull tab that is flexible to accommodate a user's hands/fingers, but which is non-elastic in a length direction so that a pulled tension applied to the pull tab will transfer a force to actuate the spring to move the locking portion out of the notches in the receiving receptacle.
Also known are cable housings which include single-piece flexible-flat-plate-metal latches which are mounted to an upper surface of the cable housings which screws, rivets, etc. Such conventional single-piece flexible-flat-plate-metal latches are typically provided with a locking portion arranged to be inserted into notches provided in a receiving receptacle, a fixed portion arranged at the upper surface of the cable housings about which the single-piece flexible-flat-plate-metal latch pivots, and an actuation point which is arranged to be actuated by a user's hands/fingers to cause the single-piece flexible-flat-plate-metal latch to pivot about the fixed portion to move the locking portion out of the notches provided in the receiving receptacle. When there is no force being applied to the actuation point, the locking portion will be retained within the notches provided in the receiving receptacle because of a biased spring force of the single-piece flexible-flat-plate-metal latch at the fixed portion.
However, the above described conventional cable housings suffer from various deficiencies. The multi-component conventional cable housings such as those including a pull tab are difficult to install and are expensive because of the large number of parts used therein. The single-piece flexible-flat-plate-metal latches are hard to press and can sometimes unlatch easily. Not only that, but the screws, rivets, etc. used to mount the single-piece flexible-flat-plate-metal latches to the conventional cable housings penetrate into the conventional cable housings, reducing the total amount of room available for other components to be provided within the conventional cable housings.